The performance architect's essential guide to the performance technology landscape

The first two editions of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology helped define the rapidly growing and vibrant field of human performance technology—a systematic approach to improving individual and organizational performance. Exhaustively researched and edited by Dr. James A. Pershing, CPT, this third edition not only updates key foundational chapters on organizational change, evaluation, instructional design, and motivation, but features breakthrough chapters on “performance technology in action” and addresses many new topics in the field, such as certification, Six Sigma, and communities of practice. In this chapter, reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (copyright 2006), Roger Addison and Carol Haig take you on a journey through the key elements of a full performance process with its pitfalls and how to avoid them.     

Theorizing progress: Women in science,engineering, and technology in higher education

A conceptual framework of positions on women in science, engineering, and technology (SET) was developed, showing a chronological progression of the main approaches to women's underrepresentation in SET during the past 20 years. Numerous initiatives have been advocated to address women's underrepresentation in SET in higher education. This article arose out of one such initiative, Winning Women, which was intended to help higher education in Scotland move toward good practice in this field. Two members of the project team describe their key findings and experiences. They illustrate how the underrepresentation of women in SET continues to be both progressive and persistent (using an SET parity index). The conceptual framework was conceived and developed from a metaanalysis of feminist theories of the gendered politics of science and technology. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 637–661, 1999     

January issue of performance improvement an excellent read!

The editor welcomes letters from all readers wishing to comment on articles in this issue of Performance Improvement (PI). Early responses have the best chance of being published. Please be concise and include your title and organizational affiliation. PI reserves the right to select, solicit, and edit letters. Send letters to: PI Editor, 1300 I. Street, NW, Suite 1250, Washington, DC 20005: fax: 202‐408‐7972: or email: pershin@indiana.edu .     

Model‐based reasoning about energy: A fourth‐grade case study

We report a case study of model‐based reasoning in which a small group of fourth‐grade students analyzes the energy flow when a solar panel is used to power an electric motor that spins a propeller. In developing their explanation of energy flow, the students draw on a general model of energy developed collectively by their class in the course of an experimental classroom curriculum led by a trained teacher. They also construct a model‐based representation of the specific system under study. Their investigation and reasoning process exhibit all the features of authentic scientific model‐based inquiry, including the revision of their models to incorporate new information. In the course of their work the students recruit and seamlessly integrate nearly all of the practices of science designated in the Next Generation Science Standards. This case study provides an example of what modeling‐based teaching and learning can look like in an elementary school classroom. It also suggests that the study of energy offers a particularly promising context for developing students' use of science practices, especially the practice of developing and using models.